Court Strikes Down Texas Anti-BDS Movement Bill

A federal judge in Texas struck down a state law Thursday that required government contractors to sign a pledge not to participate in the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 89 into law in May 2017, also known as the Anti-BDS law, and lawsuits have since been filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas.

“Anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies, and we will not tolerate such actions against an important ally,” Abbott said at the time of the law’s passing, making it one of more than a dozen states that have passed similar laws.

CAIR sued on behalf of Texas speech pathologist, Bahia Amawi, who said she was fired from her job for refusing to sign the anti-BDS contract. (RELATED: Speech Pathologist Was Fired From Texas School District For Refusing To Sign Pro-Israel Statement. Now She’s Suing)

Amawi is an American citizen of Palestinian descent, who sought an injunction intended to remove the anti-BDS clause from school contracts.

Judge Robert Pitman of the Western District of Texas ruled the state’s law violated the First Amendment by threatening to “suppress unpopular ideas” and “manipulate the public debate through coercion,” according to Common Dreams.

“This is a complete victory of the First Amendment against Texas’s attempts to suppress speech in support of Palestine,” Gadeir Abbas stated, attorney with CAIR, one of the organizations that sued Texas over the anti-BDS law.

“Whatever their views on the BDS movement, members of Congress and state legislators should heed this strong message from the courts,” Vera Eidelman, attorney with the ACLU said in a statement. “The right to boycott is alive and well in the United States and any attempt to suppress it puts you squarely on the wrong side of the Constitution.”

The ACLU successfully blocked similar anti-boycott state laws through the years, including ones in Kansas and Arizona, and made clear in its statement its suit is not a statement against or for Israel.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/04/26/texas-boycott-israel-bill/

CDC admits measles outbreak is caused by people from other countries who enter the United States and spread the disease

In the first four months of 2019, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have confirmed 555 cases of measles across 20 states. In comparison, there were 382 cases in all of 2018 and just 120 back in 2017. Five years ago, there were 667 confirmed cases, spurring media frenzy. In their latest report, the CDC admits that measles cases are actually coming from international travelers. “These outbreaks are linked to travelers who brought measles back from other countries such as Israel, Ukraine, and the Philippines, where large measles outbreaks are occurring,” says the CDC.

In early April, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency over a cluster of reported measles cases in the Orthodox Jewish community. The emergency order demanded that all un-vaccinated residents within four zip codes take a measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. Violators face imprisonment and fines up to $1,000. The order includes children as young as six months, even though the MMR package insert states that the vaccine is not recommended for anyone under twelve months of age.

If authorities are worried about one benign illness, why not target the source of the virus: international travelers from outbreak-stricken areas?

If Bill de Blasio insists on forcibly injecting six month old babies, (who do not have an adequate immune system to handle the MMR vaccine), then why doesn’t he stop all international travelers coming from outbreak-stricken areas such as Israel, Ukraine, and the Philippines? What about all the disease that pours over the Southern border? If the government insists on micromanaging viruses in the vast world, why do they target healthy, un-vaccinated children and ignore verifiable virus sources from other regions of the world? If stopping measles is so important, why not forbid international travel until the travelers have proven they have overcome infectious disease?

https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-04-19-cdc-admits-measles-outbreak-is-caused-by-people-who-enter-the-united-states.html

On 56th Friday in Gaza, Israeli forces wound 110 civilians, including 37 children and 4 paramedics

Gaza

On 56th Friday of Great March of Return and Breaking Siege, Israeli forces wound 110 civilians, including 37 children, 3 women, 4 paramedics and journalist

PCHR 26 Apr — … Two of those wounded sustained serious wounds. According to observations by PCHR’s fieldworkers, the Israeli forces who were stationed in prone positions and in military jeeps along the fence with Israel continued to use excessive force against the protesters by firing bullets and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, dozens of the protesters were hit with bullets and teargas canisters without posing any imminent threat or danger to the life of soldiers. During this week, Israeli forces have escalated their attacks against the medical personnel in the field, wounding 4 members of them. This indicates that there is an Israeli systematic policy to target the medical personnel and obstruct their humanitarian work that is guaranteed under the rules of the international humanitarian law. On Friday, 26 April 2019, the incidents were as follows:….

https://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=12416

Israel allows Gaza’s Christians to pray in Jerusalem

TEl AVIV (Asharq Al-Awsat) 25 Apr — After intervention from Western countries, the Israeli government reversed its decision and allowed Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip to cross the border checkpoints to Jerusalem and Bethlehem to participate in prayers on the occasion of Easter. Israel has denied the Christians of Gaza this right without giving a convincing explanation, and rejected all demands in this regard by Christian citizens and priests. After several officials from Europe and the United States raised this matter, Israeli authorities decided to grant 500 Palestinian Christians permits to leave, 300 of them to the West Bank and Jerusalem and 200 to Jordan. The number of Palestinian Christians in the Gaza Strip has decreased significantly in recent years; as most of them have left abroad. According to a report issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) in February 2018, 1,138 Christian Palestinians live in Gaza; they have relatives in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1694841/israel-allows-gazas-christians-pray-jerusalem

More

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/04/civilians-including-paramedics/

New York Archdiocese names 120 priests 'credibly accused' of child sex abuse as cardinal begs for forgiveness 'for the failings of those clergy'

The Archdiocese's list includes priests ordained between 1908 and 1988, none of whom currently work in the ministry. Many of the listed priests have died

Most of the alleged abuse happened in the 1970s, '80s and early '90s, but there have been two credible allegations of sex abuse by active clergy since 2002

Cardinal Timothy Dolan said he realizes 'the shame that has come upon our church due to the sexual abuse of minors'

Church abuse watchdogs and lawyers for abuse accusers said the release of the list was a positive step, but some of them saw it as incomplete

The list doesn't include accused members of religious orders who worked in the archdiocese's churches and schools, though some have released their own lists

It also doesn't include details on accused priests' past assignments or the allegations against them

The Archdiocese of New York on Friday released a list of at least 120 priests and other clergy members accused of sexually abusing a child or having child pornography that have worked under its jurisdiction.

The list includes names of bishops, high school teachers, a scouting chaplain and a notorious cardinal.

The release, from the nation's second-largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, follows more than 120 such disclosures from other dioceses around the country as the church reckons with demands for transparency about sex abuse by clergy.

In a letter to church members, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said he realizes 'the shame that has come upon our church due to the sexual abuse of minors.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6965593/New-York-Archdiocese-names-120-priests-accused-sex-abuse.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small

In "Stunning Decision" Bayer Shareholders Dump CEO Over Disastrous Monsanto Purchase

Bayer, also known as IG Farben back in the day, survived World War II (which it helped fund for Hitler's war effort while recruiting a an army of slave workers), but it may not survive the worst acquisition in its history: the disastrous $63 billion purchase of Monsanto in 2018, which also brought over the infamous carcinogenic weed-killer Roundup, and with it countless lawsuits and legal charges.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-26/stunning-decision-bayer-shareholders-dump-ceo-over-disastrous-monsanto-purchase

>>6335313

Standard Hotel

Turkey indicts third US Consulate worker in Istanbul on terrorism charges

Turkey has indicted a third US Consulate employee and his wife and daughter on charges of membership of a terrorist group, according to a copy of the indictment seen by Reuters, a move likely to further strain ties between Ankara and Washington.

Nazmi Mete Canturk, a security officer at the US Consulate in Istanbul, and his wife and daughter are accused in the indictment of links to the network of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Muslim cleric blamed by Ankara for a failed 2016 coup.

A Turkish prosecutor is seeking jail sentences for all three on charges of membership of an armed terrorist organisation, according to the indictment, which was completed on March 8 but has not been made public.

It says Canturk was in contact with dozens of individuals under investigation for being members of Gulen’s network and that “evidence has been obtained regarding the suspect’s actions in line with the instructions of the (terrorist) organisation”.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190427-turkey-indicts-third-us-consulate-worker-in-istanbul-on-terrorism-charges/

Trump fracking plan targets over 1 million acres in California

The Trump administration on Thursday detailed its plan to open more than a million acres of public and private land in California to fracking, raising environmental concerns at a time when opposition to oil and gas drilling in the state is intensifying.

The action would end a five-year moratorium on leasing federal land in California to oil and gas developers. That pause came after a federal judge ordered the Obama administration to halt similar leasing efforts until it could better evaluate the environmental risks of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.

Trump’s plan – first proposed by the administration in 2018 — targets public and private land spread across eight counties in Central California: eastern Fresno, western Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura.

The move drew immediate criticism from environmentalists, who said it would pose health risks and worsen air quality in a part of the state notorious for pollution.

“The Central Valley has some of the worst air quality in the nation, and we know fracking and drilling make air quality worse,” said Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group.

Lakewood said Trump’s plan would unleash a “fracking frenzy” that would endanger people and wildlife alike.

Once a plan is finalized and approved, environmental groups are expected to sue to block it, as they have in the past.

Proposed by the Bureau of Land Management, the plan is only the latest in a series of attempts by the federal government to open public land in Central California to fracking.

In 2013, a federal judge ruled that the government had violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it issued oil leases in Monterey County without analyzing the environmental dangers of fracking. Three years later, another federal judge reached a similar conclusion.

Now the Trump administration is trying to breathe new life into the proposal, part of its nationwide campaign to promote domestic energy production.

Industry groups praised the move. Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, an association of independent oil and gas companies, said environmentalists’ fears were misguided.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-fracking-oil-gas-california-20190425-story.html

>>6335444

Trips of truth there Fren this is bullshit and will lead to destabilizing the ground and encouraging earthquakes among other negatives

Israeli hospitals admit to segregating Jewish and Arab women at maternity wards

Three Israeli hospitals have admitted for the first time that they segregate Jewish and Arab women giving birth, at the women’s request.

In response to a lawsuit filed against four hospitals, three of them – Hadassah University Hospital on Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Haemek Hospital in Afula and Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva – have admitted in February that this is their policy, while the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, which is also included in the lawsuit, denies it.

Kupat Holim Clalit, the health maintenance organization representing Soroka and Haemek, has told the Jerusalem District Court that separating mothers in labour is part of life in Israel’s reality. “Not respecting the wishes of mothers for specific placement creates an ‘enforced communal hospital stay’ when both sides are not interested in this. The purpose of their stay is not to create an artificial melting pot.”

Hadassah Mount Scopus told the court that “given the differences between various populations, women often request to be in a room with other women from their own community. Hadassah, where possible, accedes to these requests.”

The hospital says that these requests are most common among ultra-Orthodox women, in an attempt to observe the Sabbath and kashrut laws, as well as modesty and other customs. Some Arab women also request to be in different rooms. “This is understandable, given the different languages the women speak,” says the hospital.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190427-israeli-hospitals-admit-to-segregating-jewish-and-arab-women-at-maternity-wards/

“DHS Issues Waiver to Expedite Border Wall Projects in Yuma & El Paso” & Arizona (DHS.GOV)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued two waivers, which will ensure expeditious construction of new bollard wall within the U.S. Border Patrol’s Yuma and El Paso sectors in Arizona and Texas. The projects covered by the waivers include up to approximately 53 miles of new bollard wall in place of dilapidated and outdated designs, in addition to, road construction and improvement and lighting installation. The waivers were published in the Federal Register on April 24, 2019.

To support DHS’s actions under Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, as amended (IIRIRA), DHS requested that the Department of Defense (DoD), pursuant to its authority under 10 U.S.C. § 284(b)(7), assist with the construction of fences, roads, and lighting within specified locations of the border in order to block drug-smuggling corridors across the international boundary between the United States and Mexico. The Acting Secretary of Defense determined that the projects covered by these waivers meet the statutory requirements of 10 U.S.C. § 284(b)(7). As such, these projects will be funded by appropriations available to DoD.

DoD, in close coordination with DHS/Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will plan and execute these projects in coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). USACE awarded the contracts for these projects on April 9, 2019. The Yuma projects were awarded to Barnard Construction Co. Inc. for approximately $187 million and the El Paso project was awarded to SLSCO Ltd. in the amount of $789 million.

These waivers are pursuant to authority granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security by Congress and cover a variety of environmental, natural resource, and land management laws. Congress provided the Secretary of Homeland Security with a number of authorities necessary to carry out DHS’s border security mission. Section 102(a) of IIRIRA provides that the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take such actions as may be necessary to install additional physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the United States border to deter illegal crossings in areas of high illegal entry into the United States. In section 102(b) of IIRIRA, Congress mandated the installation of additional fencing, barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors on the southwest border. Finally, in section 102(c) of IIRIRA, Congress granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to waive all legal requirements that the Secretary, in Secretary’s sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure the expeditious construction of the barriers and roads authorized by section 102 of IIRIRA.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/dhs-issues-waiver-to-expedite-border-wall-projects-in-yuma-el-paso-arizona-dhs-gov/

www.dhs.gov/news/2019/04/26/dhs-issues-waiver-expedite-border-wall-projects-yuma-el-paso

>>6335508

It would be nice if you put genuine digs on Israel in Notables, then you'd look less like a kike

New proposal wants to automatically enroll citizens into an organ donation program

Do you remember the last time you went to the DMV to renew or update your driver’s license? Chances are, you were able to check a box indicating that you would be willing to ‘participate’ in the organ donation program – in the event (Heaven forbid) you were involved in a fatal accident.

However, in a newly proposed bill, New York lawmakers are now suggesting that adults in the state should be automatically be enrolled in the organ donation program and subjected to organ harvesting by default.

Organ donation legal proposal: Most people remain uninformed about a hidden agenda

Effectively, this new bill would force people to opt “out” rather than opt in for organ donation.

To give benefit of the doubt for a moment, let’s assume there may be some good intentions here. After all, there are reportedly more than 9,000 New Yorkers currently on the organ transplant list, and close to 500 people die every year waiting for an organ.

The lawmakers’ argument? Automatically enrolling people into the organ donation program will increase the available number of donors and thereby save more lives. They also reassure constituents that only people aged 18 and up will be registered under the proposed opt out system.

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As a matter of principle, however, this proposed bill deeply concerns us. Just think about it: if so many people don’t even notice the organ donation check box when filling out DMV forms in the first place, then think of the potential ethical dilemma this can cause:

By not realizing they are automatically listed as organ donors, people may well up having their organs harvested following their deaths – whether they would have knowingly consented to it before their demise.

We’re also concerned that this sets up a dangerous precedence in a world where overly zealous doctors and surgeons are already harvesting organs before patients are legally dead. And, if this isn’t shocking enough, the sad reality is that body snatching and human trafficking is a legitimate concern in many parts of the world – including right here in the United States.

https://governmentslaves.news/2019/04/27/new-proposal-wants-to-automatically-enroll-citizens-into-an-organ-donation-program/

>>6335548

>>6335214 Court Strikes Down Texas Anti-BDS Movement Bill

Push Them Hard Enough And The Productive Class Will Opt Out Of Servitude

People love their big paychecks, but they also value their sanity.

One of the most astonishing manifestations of disconnected-from-reality hubris is public authorities' sublime confidence that employers and entrepreneurs will continue starting and operating enterprises no matter how difficult and costly it becomes to keep the doors open, much less net a profit.

The average employee / state dependent reckons that the small business owner / entrepreneur is killing it financially, banking a small fortune in pure profit every month, and that they're doing what they love so they'll continue doing it no matter what. In other words, they're all wealthy Tax Donkeys who can easily afford higher taxes and fees and will tolerate paying more to keep doing what they love.

Wrong on both counts–dead wrong. A far more typical response is the one a house painter emailed me last year: every day, he reported, he wanted to dump his spray rig and power washer in a dumpster and leave the U.S.

The number of small businesses and entrepreneurs hanging on by a thread financially and emotionally is legion. Rather than killing it, they're getting killed by rising rents, wages, labor overhead, taxes, fees, licensing, inspection fees, insurance and so on.

The long hours, financial risks and open-ended responsibilities are ideal conditions for burn-out and bankruptcy.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-26/push-them-hard-enough-and-productive-class-will-opt-out-servitude

Nationalist Pols Push Sri Lankan “Patriot Act” on Fearful Populace Following Easter Attacks

Current efforts by top Sri Lankan politicians to exploit the chaos following the Easter attacks will likely spell disaster for Sri Lanka’s religious minorities who are themselves the most frequent victims of state-sponsored and religiously motivated terrorism in the island nation.

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA — Still grappling with the fall-out from the deadliest terror attack in its history, Sri Lanka’s already dysfunctional government is struggling to come to terms with how the attack came to pass and who exactly is to blame. Since the attacks, for which Daesh (ISIS) has claimed responsibility, Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have been handed their share of the blame, especially since it was revealed that Indian intelligence attempted to warn Sri Lanka on April 4 of an imminent terror attack from an extremist Wahhabi Muslim group. Both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe have denied receiving that intelligence.

As often happens following terror attacks, the aftermath of last Sunday’s Easter bombings is being exploited politically by several key players in Sri Lankan politics, with several seeking to score political points by capitalizing off the tragedy prior to the country’s upcoming elections.

Equally if not more troubling is the political effort to use the tragedy to push through a controversial “Counter Terrorism” bill that critics argue would criminalize democratic dissent, and independent journalism as well as increase state prosecution and repression of the country’s Hindu, Christian and Muslim minorities. This bill — which has inspired numerous protests in recent months, including some just prior to the bombings — may now be pushed through Sri Lanka’s legislature, as the fear of terrorism runs high — much as the United States pushed through the liberty-busting Patriot Act following the 9/11 attacks.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/nationalist-pols-push-sri-lanka-patriot-act-on-fearful-populace-following-easter-attacks/257940/

>>6335740

Are we there yet?

Russian Warplanes Carry Out New Wave Of Airstrikes On Northern Hama. Putin Says Military Operation In Idlib “Not Expedient”

In the afternoon of April 27, warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out a series of airstrikes on terrorists’ positions in the vicinity of the town of al-Lataminah in the northern Hama countryside.

Earlier, Russian attack helicopters targeted terrorists’ positions, vehicles and gatherings in al-Lataminah and the nearby town of Kafr Zita.

These intense airstrikes appear to be an attempt to deter the terrorists, who launched a barrage of Grad rockets at the Russian Hmeimim airbase a day earlier. The attack was a major violation of the Russian-Turkish demilitarized zone on Idlib, which was reached last September.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said earlier that a large-scale military operation against the remaining terrorists Idlib “is not expedient now.” However, the president didn’t rule out the possibility of such operation in the future.

“I don’t rule it [a military operation in Idlib] out, but right now we and our Syrian friends consider that to be inadvisable given this humanitarian element,” Putin told reporters during a press conference in Beijing, according to the Moscow Times.

Putin’s remarks indicate that Russia is still committed to a peaceful solution in Idlib in coordination with Turkey, despite the recent attacks, which were carried out by terrorists hiding there.

https://southfront.org/russian-warplanes-carry-out-new-wave-of-airstrikes-on-northern-hama-putin-says-military-operation-in-idlib-not-expedient-videos/

https://youtu.be/8-pxDa9Bc4Q